A peppery aquatic plant with small round leaves, commonly used as a salad green or garnish. It has a sharp, mustard-like flavor and grows naturally in shallow running water.
From Middle English watercresse, combining 'water' and 'cresse' (cress), from Old English cærse. The plant has been harvested from streams since ancient times, with Romans considering it a brain food.
Watercress was actually the world's first commercial salad crop grown hydroponically! Victorian London had massive watercress farms that supplied the city's street vendors who sold 'poor man's bread' - watercress sandwiches that provided essential vitamins to working-class families.
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